Valuing Environmental Services Using Contingent Valuation Method

This paper presents the results of two studies in Lao PDR that assessed people's willingness to pay (WTP) using the Contingent Valuation Methodology (CVM). The first study investigated the WTP of residents for the sustainable development and maintenance of urban parks in the city using Saysetha Park as the case study. In this study residents expressed that urban parks are very important to them as they are areas for relaxation and areas to conserve urban biodiversity. The WTP survey revealed that the residents' mean WTP is 10,741kip/month/household. With this amount, it was estimated that a monthly water bill surcharge of 3,000/kip/month/household may be recommended to maintain urban parks. The second study assessed the WTP for biodiversity conservation and sustainability in the Houay Nhang Protected Area. Using CVM, the WTP responses showed that the monthly contribution that would be acceptable to the people is 5,000 kip. The logit regression shows that this WTP value is influenced by bid prices, gender, and educational levels. The respondents recognized the importance of the protected area for environmental and biodiversity protection.contingent valuation, Lao PDR

A combination of methods needed to assess the actual use of provisioning ecosystem services

Failure to recognize that potential provisioning ecosystem services are not necessarily collected and used by people may have important consequences for management of land and resources. Accounting for people's actual use of ecosystem services in decision making processes requires a robust methodological approach that goes beyond mapping the presence of ecosystem services. But no such universally accepted method exists, and there are several shortcomings of existing methods such as the application of land use/cover as a proxy for provisioning ecosystem service availability and surveys based on respondents' recall to assess people's collection of e.g. wild food. By combining four complementary methods and applying these to the shifting cultivation systems of Laos, we show how people’s actual use of ecosystem services from agricultural fields differs from ecosystem service availability. Our study is the first in Southeast Asia to combine plot monitoring, collection diaries, repeat interviews, and participant observation. By applying these multiple methods borrowed from anthropology and botany among other research domains, the study illustrates that no single method is sufficient on its own. It is of key importance for scientists to adopt methods that can account for both availability of various services and actual use of those services

Impact of Rubber Concession on Rural Livelihood in Champasack Province, Lao PDR

Investment in rubber involves considerable areas of land concession. Some state–owned concession areas that were formerly used by local people have been converted by the state for rubber production. Land concession affects the socioeconomic condition of the local community in terms of shortages of agricultural land, collection of non–timber forest products, limitations on the areas used for livestock, and biodiversity loss. The aims of this study were: to evaluate the level of job satisfaction in local community residents on their becoming laborers in a rubber company; to compare socioeconomic profit from major rubber– and non–rubber–related activities by focusing on rice production and rubber worker activities; and to estimate the factors that affect rubber worker income levels and rice farmer profits. The main methodology involved application of comparative analysis between the incomes of rubber workers and rice farmers, using socioeconomic characteristics to compare the two groups\u27 respondents through descriptive analysis and an ordinary least squares regression model. The study was based on data collected through a survey of 158 farmers carried out in the Bachiang district, Champasack province, in the southern area of the Lao People\u27s Democratic Republic in September 2010. Based on these findings, we can conclude that rice production is the traditional activity of farmers and is more beneficial to them than being a worker in rubber concession areas. Although rubber concession is being promoted by the government, these individuals are more satisfied with farming activity than being rubber workers